Artykuły

Aida Edemariam
Monday April 28, 2008
The Guardian

Last week Sainsbury's celebrated Make a Difference Day. The emphasis was on using fewer plastic bags. So far so good. Lots of us own bags for life - but forget to take them on our shopping trips. So some bright spark came up with the idea of giving out memory-joggers: fridge-magnets and car-stickers, at tills and petrol stations, that read "Take an old bag shopping". Some people have been quite tickled: there have been jokes on internet forums about helping the aged; the Scarborough Evening News even felt it deserved an exclamation mark. (As in, "Sainsbury's in Scarborough is encouraging people to 'take an old bag shopping' this weekend!")

 

Others have been less amused. "Am I the only person to find this slogan appalling?" asks angelag on the Sainsbury's website forum. "Why not just say, Remember - re-use your shopping bag. Not catchy enough? Not likely to appeal to a more youthful generation, already lacking in respect for older people."

Barbara Alford, a 66-year-old from Coventry, complained to her local petrol station manager. "He ummed and ahhd a bit, then said, 'The thing is, it's just a light-hearted way of approaching the subject,'" says Alford. "I like a good laugh myself. But this wasn't a laugh. It's how I was treated in hospital two years ago, me and the other old women."

Alford has written to her MP, and the Advertising Standards Authority; the ASA, however, won't be intervening, because stickers and magnets don't constitute paid-for advertising.

"The idea was to take your old shopping bag shopping," says a spokeswoman for Sainsbury's, helpfully spelling things out for me. But perhaps she can see the grounds for objection? "Obviously, for anyone who's taken any offence, we do apologise." Would it withdraw the stickers and magnets? "The effect has been very positive. And I think largely customers are supportive of that. So we haven't got any plans to, no."

Tricky doing the right thing these days, isn't it?

appalling – okropny, bulwersujący

approach - podchodzić

catchy - chwytliwy
emphasis - nacisk

light-hearted – beztroski, lekkomyślny

memory-jogger – “przypominacz”, przypomnienie, np. karteczka

objection - sprzeciw

offence – obraza; take an offence- obrażać się

supportive – wspierający, pomocny

tickled – połechtany, zadowolony

till – kasa sklepowa

withdraw - wycofywać

• « poprz.
• nast. »